Cala Maria

About

Cala Maria is a boss in the run-and-gun platforming game Cuphead. A nautical boss, Cala Maria cycles through several forms which reference various myths and artworks, including mermaids, the Venus de Milo, and Medusa.

Origin

Cala Maria is a boss in Cuphead, which was released September 29th, 2017.^[1] She appears on Inkwell Isle 3 in the stage "High Seas Hi-Jinks!"^[2] She has three phases: in the first she appears as a mermaid and uses sea creatures as weapons. In the second, she appears as the mythical creature Medusa with attacks that turn the player to stone, and in her final phase, appears as solely Medusa's head.

Spread

After the release of the game, Cala Maria was the subject of much Cuphead fan art playing up her flirtatious nature. On DeviantArt, there are 480 results that appear when searching "Cala Maria" as of October 19th, 2017.^[3] There is also a high amount of fan art on Tumblr. ^[4] On October 9th, Reddit user ROSpolsha^[5] uploaded an image to /r/cuphead referencing Cala Maria's attractiveness, gaining over 170 points (shown below). Imgur user koederoktopus^[6] created a gallery celebrating how Cala Maria appeared Extra THICC.

Mugman/Cala Shipping

A large part of the Cala Maria fandom centers around fans shipping her with Mugman, Cuphead's partner and who the second player plays in co-op mode. One of the earliest shippers of the two characters was DeviantArt artist KarlaDraws14. On June 21st, 2017, she posted a comic in which Cuphead and Mugman approach Cala Maria in their planes, but Mugman is taken with the fact she is giant (shown below). KarlaDraws14 created several more pieces shipping Mugman and Cala Maria.^[7]

Many future pieces of fan art contributed to the Mugman/Cala ship, often emphasizing Mugman's affinity for large women (examples shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References